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We went to the Outer Banks this weekend for a badly needed weekend away. Saturday morning I was up early and sat on the balcony a while, watching Brown Pelicans glide over the Atlantic, occasionally diving into the water for a meal, and a Ghost Crab (a.k.a. Sand Crab, though one of several species called that) foraging on the ground below me. The rest of the day was spent lounging on the beach. I really hadn't brought any beach-wear so we went to a nearby store to get some. I walked in to Super Wings intending to buy shorts but walked out with a sundress. I'm still trying to figure that one out. ;) First time I've actually worn a dress. We also watched seagulls and sandpipers pick over the swash zone of the beach, and I discovered a zone of singing sand near the dunes which I subsequently pointed out to her. It's more "barking sand" and the sound is, to me, exactly the sound you'd expect scuffing your feet against sand to make but the volume goes to 11 - I could hear it over the noises of the wind, surf, and a diesel boat a few hundred yards away. My sweetie got some camera phone pictures of me frolicking in the surf, too. She commented that I appeared so happy and she was glad to see me so; so was I.
We went down to Cape Hatteras* on Sunday to get out of the smoke that had invaded Nags Head - the wind shifted overnight bringing to town the smoke from the lightning-sparked Pains Bay Wildfires 20-some miles away. On the way back I noticed something - ruins of a wooden bridge across a bay just off NC 12 on the Pamlico Sound side of Hatteras Island. There was a sign nearby that read something about New Inlet. Putting that together with my long-held curiosity about Pea Island, as noted by the signs for Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, I did a little bit of research once back at the hotel. In short, Pea Island existed for about 75 years, from the mid-1800s, when Oregon Inlet opened to the North,until 1922, when New Inlet shoaled-up and closed, then again for a few months in 1933 when a hurricane briefly reopened New Inlet. Since then it has been the northern-most few miles of Hatteras Island.
We saw the smoke again on Monday when, after visiting the Wright Brothers Memorial National Park in Kill Devil Hills (contrary to the story, their all but their earliest work was done here rather than nearby Kitty Hawk) we went further up Bodie Island to a restaurant in Kitty Hawk for lunch. The first leg of the trip home was even more interesting...US 64 from Bodie Island to Roanoke Island(*) was bad enough with gusty/choppy cross winds, but it got worse from Roanoke Island to the mainland as we also had limited visibility for a couple miles due to that smoke being blown across the highway. There's a high arch in that bridge, over the navigable channel of Croatan Sound, from which one can usually see the mainland 2-3 miles away; couldn't that day.
We arrived home at nearly 10 P.M. happy but exhausted.
* For those who had this bit of English-American history, these two factor into the story of the Lost Colony. The Roanoke Island we crossed is the one where that colony was last known to be and Croatoan, the name carved into a post of the fort, was the name the settlers used either for Hatteras Island or a now-gone island in the area of Cape Hatteras.
We went down to Cape Hatteras* on Sunday to get out of the smoke that had invaded Nags Head - the wind shifted overnight bringing to town the smoke from the lightning-sparked Pains Bay Wildfires 20-some miles away. On the way back I noticed something - ruins of a wooden bridge across a bay just off NC 12 on the Pamlico Sound side of Hatteras Island. There was a sign nearby that read something about New Inlet. Putting that together with my long-held curiosity about Pea Island, as noted by the signs for Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, I did a little bit of research once back at the hotel. In short, Pea Island existed for about 75 years, from the mid-1800s, when Oregon Inlet opened to the North,until 1922, when New Inlet shoaled-up and closed, then again for a few months in 1933 when a hurricane briefly reopened New Inlet. Since then it has been the northern-most few miles of Hatteras Island.
We saw the smoke again on Monday when, after visiting the Wright Brothers Memorial National Park in Kill Devil Hills (contrary to the story, their all but their earliest work was done here rather than nearby Kitty Hawk) we went further up Bodie Island to a restaurant in Kitty Hawk for lunch. The first leg of the trip home was even more interesting...US 64 from Bodie Island to Roanoke Island(*) was bad enough with gusty/choppy cross winds, but it got worse from Roanoke Island to the mainland as we also had limited visibility for a couple miles due to that smoke being blown across the highway. There's a high arch in that bridge, over the navigable channel of Croatan Sound, from which one can usually see the mainland 2-3 miles away; couldn't that day.
We arrived home at nearly 10 P.M. happy but exhausted.
* For those who had this bit of English-American history, these two factor into the story of the Lost Colony. The Roanoke Island we crossed is the one where that colony was last known to be and Croatoan, the name carved into a post of the fort, was the name the settlers used either for Hatteras Island or a now-gone island in the area of Cape Hatteras.
